“What interests me is listening to people,” announced Laure Adler, French feminist, historian, author, journalist, and, she informed us, “psychiatre manquée.” Happily for those who saw her interviewed by Radio-Canada’s Christiane Charette on Friday, Adler also likes to talk. (Close to the end of the evening she even excused: “Excusez-moi, je suis trop bavarde.”)

With a background in radio and television it is not surprising that Adler tells anecdotes with practiced spontaneity. She excels at digressions. Her account of being named conseillère culturelle to François Mitterrand in 1989 began with an explanation of how her parents came to visit her in Paris once a year, and went on to her hanging up the first two times Mitterand had one of his staff call her because she thought it was her son playing a practical joke. The story ended with la président de la republique paying a visit to her hospital room after she had given birth to her daughter.

It was an evening of gossip and memorable quotes. On Mitterand: “Il était tout petit, en fait.” On how her parents feel about Mitterand: “He’s dead, but they still hate him.” On Sarkozy: “How does Carla Bruni do it? She’s so beautiful and so nice…” Re the current state of feminism in France: “Hélas, il n’existe plus.”

As Christiane Charette said at the beginning of the event, we were all there for the same reason—to see, or rather listen to Laure Adler. And why was Adler there? “J’aime le ciel à Montréal,” she said.